Headlines

Joel Kotkin

The new power class who’ll profit from Obama’s reelection

The clerisy shares a kind of mission which Bell described as the rational “ordering of mass society.” Like the bishops and parish priests of the feudal past, or the public intellectuals, university dons and Anglican worthies of early 19th century Britain, today’s clerisy attempts to impart on the masses today’s distinctly secular “truths,” on issues ranging from the nature of justice, race and gender to the environment. Academics, for example, increasingly regulate speech along politically correct lines, and indoctrinate the young while the media shape their perceptions of reality…

Let’s be clear — this new ascendant class is no threat to either the “one percent,” or even the much smaller decimal groups. Historically, the already rich and large economic interests often profit in a hyper-regulated state; the clerisy’s actions can often stifle competition by increasing the cost of entry for unwelcome new players. Like Cardinal Richelieu or Louis XIV’s finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, our modern-day dirigistes favor state-directed capital that has benefited, among others, “green” capitalists, Wall Street “too big to fail” firms and, of course, General Motors.

More disturbing still may be the clerisy’s regal disregard for democratic give and take. Both traditional hierarchies, or new ones like the Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution, disdain popular will as intrinsically lacking in scientific judgment and societal wisdom. Some leading figures in the clerisy, such as former Obama budget advisor Peter Orszag, openly argue for shifting power from naturally contentious elected bodies to credentialed “experts” operating in places Washington, Brussels or the United Nations.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

BO and his elite comrades – all former Red Diaper Babies and/or the children of fellow travelers – are a bunch of grifter opportunists who passionately believed in the Dictatorship of the Proletariat until they amassed power and struck it rich. That does not describe the Robber Barons.

Klotin may be a D…but he pulls no punches wrt BHO and leftism in general…in fact he is pretty brutal.

the last time he was linked here he said this

In this sense California business has devolved into something analogous to Mexican enterprise under the old PRI regime. If you want to survive, you bow, curtsey and pay up — or else. Business demanded little in return, for example, insisting that education funds be conditional on comprehensive reform. After the election some business types belatedly have started to express concerns about the new Democratic supermajority and what they will do with those new tax revenues. But their inevitable fallback strategy will likely be falling on one knee to beg Governor Brown to save them from an ever more invigorated progressive majority.

in a post about Obama’s 2016. he said you don’t need to go to see the movie…just go to CA

what is remarkable is that the morons who run the left-wing ‘news’ channels are all about writing epistles to barry and ranting about eliminating his opposition. I realize that TV people are
not hired for their brains, but geez

The political divide in this country is less and less about D vs. R or liberal vs. conservative but elitist vs. average person. Kotkin notes that the elites increasingly seek to control the old, land-oriented industries but remember the former are in big trouble without the latter. Microsoft and Google may be able to process information but the whole process grinds to a halt without electricity (“green” power is a joke and will be for the foreseeable future – oil, gas and coal still run the country.) The Fed and the banks may play games with monopoly money all day long but that money becomes worthless without a productive economy to give it value. So while the new clerisy may have “power” now, it can vanish pretty quickly due to unforseen happenings in the real world. Just like the priests and bishops of old, their hold on the reigns is tenuous and shaky. Events already in motion may make it a short-lived kingdom.

This is going to be the best thing in the end.
And then a new cycle will start all over again.
People having had no freedom & only oppression will suddenly want it again & fight for it, only to later pi$$ it away bcs they vote themselves into oppression again.